


Ace of Hearts

by moosh



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Asexual Character, Asexual Pepper Potts, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Pepper Potts Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 05:22:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16654993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moosh/pseuds/moosh
Summary: After a few weeks of dating, Pepper has to tell Tony that she's asexual.





	Ace of Hearts

It had been a month since the Expo. A month since their first kiss. And a month since Pepper had really, truly realized that she was in love with Tony fucking Stark.

That was what scared her most that night. Not the explosions. Not flying hundreds of feet in the air carried by Iron Man. And certainly not the impending stock drop.

No. It was him. Being in love with _him._ It was completely ridiculous.

She’d been accused of being in love with him before, but she always laughed it off. _No way, he’s like my brother or a really dim cocker spaniel who needs to be taken care of._

But no. She was _in_ love with him. The kiss had made it real and it was terrifying.

She should’ve put a stop to it before it even had a chance to start, but sitting in the back of the car with him in the early hours of the morning, her head on his chest and his arm around her shoulder, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Much to her surprise, he said that he wanted to take it slow. He’d never really done the whole _dating_ thing and wanted to make sure he was doing it right. They didn’t even kiss again until they were back in Malibu a week later, walking along Tony’s private stretch of beach.

This was both a blessing and curse.

Over the next few weeks, in-between meetings with SHIELD, the board, and various relief organizations, they found time to go on actual, honest to goodness dates. Dinners and movies and a trip to the Santa Monica Pier dressed as tourists wearing stupid hats and big sunglasses and fanny packs. Every time they were alone together, she wanted to put an end to it, but god dammit, it had been _years_ since she’d been on a date and it was nice.

“You don’t have to – I mean – what I’m trying to say is is that you can stay, well, here tonight. If you want to.” Tony fumbled out across the table from her, avoiding eye contact. Pepper’s stomach dropped. This was it.

He’d invited her over and actually cooked a meal for her, which she’d always known he was capable of but never witnessed. And now they’d reached the point in the evening where they were, she assumed, supposed to have some mind-blowing sex and solidify their relationship.

Suddenly, she felt a little nauseous.

Maybe it could be different this time. Maybe it would be different this time. This is Tony. She loves him. She can do this for him. She can do this. _She can do this._

The following few minutes were a blur, but the next thing she knew she was following Tony to the nearest couch while making out like a couple of teenagers. Which, to be fair, she mostly enjoyed, so maybe it would be OK.

Pepper took a deep breath and closed her eyes as Tony started planting gentle kisses down her neck and onto her newly exposed shoulder. Suddenly his hand slipped underneath the waistband of her skirt, and she began to panic.

Nope. She couldn’t do this.

“No no no no no stop.” She almost yelled, pushing him away and standing up.

“Sorry – I thought – sorry.” He said sitting up, a look of concern in his eyes.

“No, it’s not - fuck Tony, _I’m sorry_ , I can’t do this.”

“Can’t do what?”

Pepper took a seat on the edge of the couch. Tears were beginning to well up in the corners of her eyes.

“Pep? What’s wrong?”

“I – I love you Tony.” She reached out to grab his hand and turned to look at him, eyes glassy and red. “I love you so much. I am _in_ love with you. And I want this to work, which is stupid, but I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.”

“Ok?”

“I’m – I just – I can’t have sex with you. I don’t _want_ to have sex with you. I wish I did, you have no idea how much I wish that I could do that for you, but – “ She trailed off.

“Pepper?”

“I’m asexual, Tony.” She blurted out.

“A-what?”

“Asexual. Look it up. It’s a real thing, I swear to you. I don’t want to have sex. Ever. With you or with anyone. I don’t need it and the thought of it just makes me _really_ uncomfortable. Which I know is weird, but it’s just -  that’s just me. And it’s not because I haven’t found the right guy. And it’s not because I’m secretly a lesbian. And it’s not because I am a stuck-up frigid bitch, all right? God, what was I thinking?” Pepper suddenly stood up, grabbed her shoes, and started heading towards the door. “This was never going to work. You’re _Tony Stark_. You’ve slept with half the women on Planet Earth, why would you _ever_ want to be with me?”

“Pepper!” Tony called out while scrambling to his feet to follow her.

“I need to go.” She was already by the door fishing around in her purse for her car keys by the time Tony caught up with her.

“Can we talk about this, I’m not – “

“No. We need to stop. I should have put a stop to it weeks ago. I’m sorry. Goodnight Tony.”

+++

Pepper didn’t see or hear from Tony for three days. He skipped two meetings about the construction of the new Stark Tower in New York, though he managed to send along notes and schematics to one of the R&D guys, so at least she knew he was alive. It wasn’t unusual for Tony to not step foot in the SI offices for weeks at a time, even when he was CEO, but she couldn’t help but worry that he might be falling back into some bad habits.

Distance was good though, right? She needed to move on. She needed to be able to do her job without thinking about him constantly. However, as the end of day three approached without so much as a snarky text message or a sarcastic e-mail reply she began to worry.

After an unnecessarily long meeting with the marketing department ended, she ducked into her office and locked the door.

“JARVIS?” She asked, pulling out her tablet.

“Yes Ms. Potts?”

“Is Tony OK?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Is he – has anyone - what has he been up to? Is he at the house?”

“Yes, he’s been in the workshop browsing the internet and working on upgrades for a few of his older robots.”

“For three days?”

“He stepped out for about an hour this afternoon to go to Whole Foods and to the hardware store.”

“Has he been eating?”

“I’ve ordered 3 pizzas. Would you like me to put you through to him? Perhaps if the two of you spoke – “

“No, thank you JARVIS. That won’t be necessary right now. Just – just make sure he eats. And make Dum-E drag him up to his bed at some point.”

“Will do.”

That night while Pepper was mindlessly watching some piece of trash Real Housewives show, there was a knock at her door. She assumed it was a very persistent Jehovah’s Witness or maybe a lost delivery guy. Certainly not Tony Stark holding a bouquet of flowers.

“What are you doing here?”

“Can I come in?”

Against her better judgement, she stepped aside and let him in.

“I got you these.” He said, awkwardly shoving the bouquet at her. It was a dozen roses. Three black, three purple, three grey and three white.  They were the colors of the asexual pride flag. “I – those are the right colors, right? I’ve been doing some research.”

Pepper narrowed her eyes at him, skeptical. “Yes, these are the right colors.”

“Good! White, purple and black were easy to get, but they don’t make grey ones apparently, so I had to spray paint some. Not sure how long they’re going to live, but they seem to be doing ok so far. Can we talk?”

She nervously chewed at her bottom lip looking back and forth between Tony and the flowers. “I need to put these in water. Come to the kitchen.”

Tony followed her in silence down the hall and took a seat at the kitchen table. He started drumming his fingers on the table behind her while she looked for a vase. “Can I ask you something?”

She stopped and gripped the edge of the counter, her back still to him. She didn’t want to talk about it. She _hated_ talking about it. Most people thought she was crazy. She glanced down at the bouquet of flowers though and took a deep breath. At least he’d been thoughtful enough to type the word _asexual_ into Google. “Sure.”

“What’s with all of the cake? The message boards were full of posts about cake. Am I missing something or is it really just cake?”

Well, that was not what she was expecting. “Oh. Um. I don’t - it's just cake. We like cake.” She said, turning to face him

“I like cake too. Cake is good.”

“I’m more of a pie person.”

“Good to know, I’ll keep that in mind. Another question. Are you, uh, aromantic as well?”

She cocked her head. “What?”

“Aromantic. Or, _aro_ , as the kids say I guess. When I was researching I found that some people who are asexual are also aromantic so I just want to know what we’re working with here.”

Pepper continued to look at him like he had three heads.

“What? You told me to look it up, so I did. I _always_ do impeccable research.”

She crossed her arms and leaned back on the counter. “No, I am not aromantic.”

A smile crept onto Tony’s face. “Ok, so - so you and I? We could still be together? Because I’d really like that.”

“Tony…” She sighed, taking a seat across from him at the table. “I’m not going to have sex with you.”

“Yes, I’ve kind of figured that much out.”

“That doesn’t bother you?”

He looked thoughtful for a moment while trying to figure out what to say next. “I will admit that I had to do a bit of soul searching the past few days, but I’m here aren’t I?”

“I’ve tried this before. Dating someone who wasn’t asexual. And I think that he thought I’d eventually just _come around_ or something. But I’m not going to change. That’s not how - “

“I don’t want you to change, ok?” He interrupted. “I just want to figure you out. You’re like a complicated equation that I’ve been trying to solve for years with no luck. But now I’ve got another piece of the puzzle and the image is making a lot more sense and I just – I don’t really know where I am going with this analogy, but I’m here. I want to be here, and I know what that means, all right? I – I love you, Pepper.”

She closed her eyes and pinched the brim of her nose. “I don’t want you to deny yourself something that you enjoy just because I’m kinda broken.”

“I really like strawberries, but I’ve completely eliminated them from my diet for fear of sending you into anaphylactic shock.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“All right Potts, number one, you are not broken. There is _nothing_ wrong with you. Stop saying that kind of shit. Number two, I’ve got two hands and a basement full of robots, I’ll be fine.”

Pepper couldn’t help but laugh at that last statement and looked up to meet Tony’s gaze.

“Come on Pep, we both want this. What are you afraid of?”

“I’m afraid of you not being fine, you know?” She trailed off before taking a deep breath. She was _so_ not used to being this vulnerable in front of anyone. “I’m afraid of you getting bored and getting frustrated. I’m afraid of you growing to resent me.”

“Not gonna happen.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Well, like I said. I’m here. Now. In front of you. And I want this. I want you. I want us. That I know for sure.”

She smiled, finally relenting. “Ok if we – Tony, if we do this, can you please promise me one thing?”

“Shoot.”

“Promise me you’ll tell me if you’re not fine. With Brett and I – I thought we were doing good but he –it just ended really badly and so, just promise me that you’ll tell me if you need more.”

“Pep – “

“ _Tony_.”

“All right, I promise. As long as you promise me that you’ll stop putting yourself down so much about this. There is _nothing_ wrong with you.” He repeated. “And I’m not mad or upset or anything. All right?”

“All right.”

“See? It’ll be fine. We good?”

Pepper still had some doubts, but Tony seemed genuine. “Yeah, I – I think we’re good.”

“Great!” Tony beamed. “So, I guess we’re, what? Going steady now? Do people still say that? I’ve never done this before.”

Pepper laughed. “Going steady? What year is it? Are you going to give me your letterman jacket before we go to the sockhop?”

“Sorry, babe, but they don’t give letterman jackets to the science club.”

“Nerd.”

“Ouch. I am hurt.”

Pepper rolled her eyes and stood up.

“Wait!” Tony said, reaching out and motioning for her to sit back down. “Before we leave the table of truth – “

“The _what?_ ” Pepper asked, sitting back down. “Table of truth. That’s what I’ve decided this is.”

“Uh, ok.”

“Right, well on the message boards they said it was important to establish boundaries. So, I think we should do that. Is holding hands ok?”

She grabbed his hands and gave them a squeeze. This could work. “Yes, holding hands is ok.”

“What about hugging?”

“Hugging is good. I like hugging a lot.”

A large smile spread across Tony’s face, and in one motion he stood and pulled Pepper up and around into a hug. They stood that way for a moment, before Pepper broke the silence.

“Are you sure about this, Tony?”

“One-hundred percent.”

Pepper reached out and cupped Tony’s cheek and began to rub gentle circles with her thumb. “Kissing is ok too.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Pepper smiled, before leaning in and kissing him gently on the lips. They lingered for a moment with their foreheads resting against each other, content.

“I love you, Pep.”

“I love you too, Tony. Thank you for the flowers.”


End file.
